PITTSBORO — Following state guidelines to stay at home during the conronavirus pandemic, Stephen Thomas and his sister Sherry (Thomas) Knepper have spent some of their free time sifting and sorting through the contents of an old barn on their family property, unearthing long-forgotten heirlooms including farm equipment and one unusual find: an old ballot box.
The barn, located on the Thomas Family Farm off Mt. View Church Road a few miles south of Pittsboro, has been a fixture of their family property for as long as Sherry can recall. Her father, the late James “J.W.” Walker Thomas Jr., farmed the property for decades.
And its contents might have gone unnoticed longer had it not been for a rough storm that blew through the area in late January, bringing heavy winds that badly damaging the barn.
“It literally peeled back a portion of the roof, taking the rafters with it,” Sherry said. “It’s still safe to go in there, but the barn’s not repairable. So we began the cleaning out process, which coincidentally happened during this virus situation.”
It’s been no easy task.
“My father, like a lot of people who grew up in the Depression era, held on to everything,” Sherry said. “He used to say he ‘used everything but the squeal of a pig,’ and he would have used that too if he could’ve found a way. That generation held on to just about everything that could potentially be used.”
So there were a lot of things to sort through, mostly farm implements: horse-drawn plows, sickles and scythes, even a wagon.
“There’s some gorgeous wood in there, too,” Sherry said, “and some terrifically long boards.”
There was a lot of what they called “junk,” too, but nestled among the odd and sundry items, they found one “very interesting” item, Sherry said.
Though they weren’t certain, at first, of the original use of their discovery, a five-foot-long wooden box — still in fine condition, complete with several cubbies, slots and locks — close inspection revealed an answer. Inside were a number of old paper ballots printed for a Chatham County election held nearly 70 years ago.
The ballots — all of them unused — date to the May 1952 primary election. Though a long time ago now, the names on those surviving paper ballots are still well-known to many in North Carolina: William B. Umstead, candidate for Governor, and Luther H. Hodges, Lt. Governor.
Umstead, who had served in the U.S. House and Senate, ran for North Carolina governor in 1952 and won, serving as the state’s 63rd governor, — but for only a short time. A heart attack Umstead suffered early in his administration claimed his life. William B. Umstead State Park in Wake County is named in his honor.
Hodges, elected as Lt. Governor in 1952, succeeded Umstead and served as Governor from 1954 to 1961.
While the ballot box and ballots were unexpected finds, they weren’t a complete surprise. Sherry knew her father had, for many years, worked as a registrar in the Haw River precinct, keeping record of many local elections.
“I remember when they’d be tallying the ballots,” recalled Sherry, “and it would be very late when they finished. Obviously, in that time the election equipment was very different from what we have today.”
Elections and the fulfillment of the democratic process were always important to Sherry’s father, who died about 12 years ago.
“In his later days,” she said, “I remember taking him to the board of elections in Pittsboro for early voting, because he didn’t want to miss it. That was always real important.”
Stephen Thomas, who lives nearby on the family land, and his sister agreed that finding the box, with its treasure of long-obsolete ballots, was a pleasant distraction, but they’re still mulling over what they’ll do with the old election memorabilia.
“Truly, I don’t know what we’re going to do with it,” Sherry said.
She and her sibling have floated the idea of offering the relic on loan to the Chatham County Historical Association, which operates the history museum on the ground floor of the Chatham County Courthouse in Pittsboro.
But they’ve got time to figure that out, with stay-at-home measures in place across the state through the end of this month, possibly longer.